


Once Past These Halcyon Years

by lucifel



Series: Layton/Sherlock WWI Crossover Verse [1]
Category: Layton Kyouju Series | Professor Layton Series, Sherlock (TV)
Genre: AU, Angst, Crossover, Gen, wwi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-02-19
Updated: 2011-02-19
Packaged: 2017-10-15 18:36:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,952
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/163706
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lucifel/pseuds/lucifel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>1905 to 1918.  Sherlock at Cambridge, John at war, Flora in the aftermath, and Layton, who hopes till the end. A prequel to Moriarty's Children.  (Character deaths are Layton-verse not Sherlock.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Once Past These Halcyon Years

**Author's Note:**

> My history is a little bit off here. I'm aware that the time line I give precludes Luke from actually having been in the 29th and that he should've been sent to the Western Front and not Gallipoli; but let's call it creative license, yes? I needed it to be the 29th because that allows John to have been Garrisoned in Afghanistan before the start of the war.

In 1905, Hershel Layton turns 38.

He make a modest living as a professor of archeology at Gressenheller University in London, owns an unfortunately outdated top hat, and has yet to encounter a flavor of tea that he doesn't like. His father is German, his mother French. Both of his children, though they are not technically _his_ , consider themselves to be English.

During term, he spends his days teaching classes, conducting research, and writing papers. In the evenings, at home, he tutors his son, Luke, in mathematics and tries desperately to convince his daughter, Flora, to let him hire a cook. Both Luke and Flora address him fondly as "Professor" and neither ever mentions the parents that they have lost.

In the summers, during holidays, they travel, as a family, out to the countryside where they solve puzzles and have grand (if mostly fictional) adventures.

Luke and Flora are good children, they will grow to be better adults.

Layton considers them his life's greatest blessing.

\--

1912 is Luke's second year at Cambridge. He is seventeen, passionate about mathematics, and one of two young geniuses at his college. He is the friendly one, the charming one, the one whom the older boys dote upon as they would have a beloved younger brother. Sherlock Holmes, the _other_ young genius, is the handsome one, the mercurial one, the dark Heathcliff who catches the eye of every girl in Girton, Newnham, and Hughes. Sherlock is also the skinny one, the unfriendly one, and the one whom the older boys cornered and occasionally beat.

Upon Luke, falls the dubious pleasure of sharing rooms with Sherlock.

The arrangement has its ups and downs: On the one hand, Sherlock came accompanied by what seems to Luke like an army of servants. These servants tidy their rooms, launder their clothes, and see to both their needs without ever actually bothering to distinguish which of the young masters was and was not their charge. This saves Luke, or rather the Professor, no small expense and ensures that the messes caused by Sherlock's experiments are always cleaned away before they get too bad. On the other hand, Sherlock corrects Luke's equations, (which is equal parts irritating and helpful,) practices Violin at all hours, (though Luke reasons that Sherlock's playing is at least better for his digestion than Flora's cooking,) and has no respect for anyone's property. (Which is odd given that, in the immediate aftermath of a cleaning, Sherlock could generally to trusted to fly into a towering rage wherein he would inevitably complain about his own property being disrespected. Luke will concede, however, that Sherlock always replaces whatever it is of Luke's that he breaks during this fits. Luke does not know that it is the maid, under direction from Sherlock's brother Mycroft, who actually does most of the replacing.)

Luke's friends cannot understand how he _lives_ with Sherlock. (When Luke isn't there, they tease the boy mercilessly. Sometimes they do that even when Luke is there, though it make him cross.) Luke answers their questions with glib lies about comforting all the girls whom Sherlock turns down (which, actually, is more truth than lie,) and says absolutely nothing to anyone about how easy and entertaining it is to communicate with his roommate. (Sherlock has very little use for English, but a great deal of fondness for puzzles. Which is lucky since Luke considers himself to be fluent in puzzles.)

Luke saves that bit for his letters home to the Professor.

\--

Michaelmas term 1913 is Luke's last at Cambridge.

There is a fight. Sherlock is hurt. Luke breaks the nose of a Duke's son and the arm of an Earl's nephew defending him.

When Luke is forced to transfer to Gressenheller, the Professor ruffles his hair and tells him he's proud of him and Flora welcomes him home with an enthusiastic hug and an (almost edible) feast.

The next term, when Luke's letters to Sherlock come back to him unread, Luke is hurt. No one ever informs Luke how Sherlock Holmes refuses to return to Cambridge after Luke leaves and instead, transfers to Oxford where he he is immediately bitten Victor Trevor's dog.

That same year, the Earl's nephew is exposed as a sodomite and the Duke's son gambles away half his father's Estate.

Neither family survives the scandal.

It isn't until years later, when Sherlock reads of Luke's death in the papers, that he purges his only friend from Cambridge from memory. The decision is one part shame, two parts regret, and one part something so much like hurt that Sherlock refuses to give it a name. (Grief.)

\--

Flora gets married in 1914. Her husband has a title, but no estate. (Old blood without any old money.) He was a student of Layton's, remains a friend of Luke's, and is, overall, a good man - if a bit pinched looking in the face. His mother sniffs at Flora lineage, his father immediately hires a lawyer to write up the entail, they both look on with horror when they learn that she's been raised by a man whose father was German. They overcome their disapproval only when the size of Flora's inheritance from her father is revealed. At the wedding, Layton nearly pushes them both into the punch bowl.

Flora is perfectly happy. For all of two months.

Then comes war.

When the war arrives, they do not yet know that it will a Great War. _The_ Great War. Like most of his peers, Luke enlists as soon as can. He is a brave, if reluctant, soldier. It is obvious to Layton, at least, that does not want to go - Luke can't stand the thought of killing - but that his patriotism and damnable sense of honor (the same one that got him sent down from Cambridge) would not allow him any other course. Flora's husband enlists with him and, together, they go off to war.

That autumn, Flora gives Layton kiss on the cheek, pins on her hat, and walks to the nearest volunteer center to begin training as a Red Cross nurse.

\--

By January of 1915 Luke is on an inevitable collision course with Cape Helles, Flora is headed to France, and Hershel realises that his family has been scattered to the four winds.

At first, it isn't so terribly bad. The papers remain optimistic. The attack on the Dardanelles is anticipated to be a rousing success. Flora is only _training_ to be a nurse and Luke has Flora's husband, along with any number of fine young men, to watch his back.

Then comes April.

Hundreds die at Gallipoli, the casualty count is in the thousands. Though he dies in the initial rush, Luke's name isn't published until late May. When it comes Layton can hardly see the black letters on the newsprint through the white hot pain behind his eyes. At first, he does not believe. He receives no identity tags, there is no talk of a body being brought home. He does not care that Flora's husband died too. He does not believe until he can no longer do anything but believe.

He sends for Flora. She does not come.

By August, Layton has focused all of his not inconsiderable attention upon finding his daughter. When he cannot, when the mystery of her whereabouts remains unsolved in the chaos of war, Layton gives her up for dead as well.

He grieves all through December.

\--

Professor Hershel Layton spends all of 1916 at the bottom of a snifter of Brandy.

Flora spends 1916 in Greece. The vagaries of war have brought her to Limnos and the hospital there is like a charnel house. (It is not, not really, but Flora will never remember it any differently.) Flora looses count of the dead. She attaches herself to the only sober English doctor at the facility, a Doctor John Watson who is, himself, a soldier - one still recovering from a shoulder wound obtained at Sari Bair. (When it is necessary, she provides the steady hands that he longer has.) Most days, they are so overwhelmed they can do little more than curse at the (lack of) supplies and wash the worst of the gangrene away. They do more than that in truth but, after, Flora will barely remember anything beyond his name. In August, when he is discharged and sent home to London due to his shoulder wound being complicated by an uninjured but somehow _gimp_ leg, Flora bursts into tears and holds him until he forces her to let go.

Later, he won't remember her either.

Once back in London, John Watson meets Sherlock Holmes and promptly moves into Baker St. Sherlock, who had been prevented from joining the military by a combination of his brother's influence and his own astounding inability to follow orders, is a code breaker, though he considers code breaking terribly dull. Sherlock takes no credit for his work, plays Violin at all hours of the night, pouts whenever he doesn't get his way, and draggs John all over London solving cases that should have been left to New Scotland Yard.

John finds the latter half of 1916 more exhilarating than any war.

\--

By 1917 Hershel Layton is a destitute Professor Emertis who has been retired against his will. He squanders what he has left on ever cheaper alcohol and wonders how long it will be until he dies. He has no career, no hope, and no children. Not even an Urn of their ashes for his mantelpiece. He wonders why his landlady doesn't kick him out - but then, all three of _her_ sons will be coming home. 

Hershel celebrates his birthday with twice as much Gin as he'd drank the day before. When he wakes to find Flora standing over him some days later, he believes he is being haunted by her ghost. It isn't until she collapses into tears, down beside him on the floor, her too thin face buried in his chest, that he realizes that she's real.

She doesn't know that her husband is dead.

She cries more when she hears about Luke.

Layton holds her tight and praises God for her safe return anyway.

Now, from this point on, she is his life.

\--

It takes Hershel a shamefully long time to cut down on the drinking. Without the alcohol it is difficult to face the loss of his position, his career, and his boy. He had always promised that his Children would have better.

Flora's inheritance, to his anger, goes to her husband's younger brother. He is a boy after his own mother's heart and, being heartless, is more than happy to leave his brother's widow to starve. For the first six months of 1918, they survive only because Layton has enough friends remaining that they hire Flora for whatever secretarial work they can invent (and spare the money for).

By summer, Layton is sober enough to tutor. In the wake of war however, he finds that his name is too German for the parents of most potential students. His frustration leads him to invent a new name. One which his former colleagues and close acquaintances are more than happy to supply references for.

He borrows a Christian name from poor Luke's grandfather, and takes for a family name what Flora had named one of her strays.

It's a good strong name, Flora says, and so he becomes an instructor of mathematics. His income is small, but it is sufficient for their small household.

Flora plumps up. Grief abates. They have a telephone installed. They are, if not _quite_ as happy as they had once been, at least somewhat more hopeful then they'd been before.

In the autumn, the pandemic hits London.


End file.
